How to Download / Install Git & GitHub Desktop (Git Beginner Tutorial, first commit)

Git is amazing for sharing your code, collaborating with others and keeping a record of who changed what. It's super complicated, but here's a beginner tutorial on how to get it installed & set up. It is by no means complete so definitely continue learning by checking out other tutorials.

➣Download Git https://git-scm.com/downloads
-Choose your operating system
-"Select Components": check "Windows Explorer Integration"
-"PATH Environment" choose the 3rd option (include the UNIX commands. The 2nd option works but I recommend the 3rd option)
-"Line Ending Convention" choose the 1st option for windows: "Checkout windows-style, commit unix-style line endings"

➣Download GitHub Desktop https://desktop.github.com/
-it works with repositories from any source (not just github)
-Create Github Account https://github.com/
-Your username is public & your URL, so don't choose something stupid
-Sign into github desktop

➣Cloning (creating a project/repository)
-Create a "New repository" from https://github.com/
-the name must be unique to your account
-Click "set up in desktop" to clone & choose a folder
-Put files for that project in the repository folder

➣Making Commits
-change your files
-go to the Desktop app & click checkboxes next to files you want to include in a commit (unchecking a file still keeps the changes you made, but they won't be recorded in this commit)
-Type a commit message in "Summary"
-Click "commit to master"
-Sync (in upper right to pull & push @ the same time)

------------Command Line----------------
git status == tells you if files are changed
git pull == updates your local files to match any new changes stored on GitHub
git add -A == adds all those files to the stage & gets them ready to commit
git commit -m "your message here in quotes" == saves the changes
git push == sends your new commits up to the gitHub server


Detailed installation instructions http://mechanicalrevolution.com/blog/git_installation.html
Setting Git Global Username & Email https://help.github.com/articles/setting-your-username-in-git/